Mamata Banerjee invites Arvind Kejriwal, Nitish Kumar for business summit in January

KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has invited her Bihar and Delhi counterparts Nitish Kumar and Arvind Kejriwal to the Bengal Global Business Summit here on January 7 next year.

"Nitish Kumar and Arvind Kejriwal have been invited to Bengal Global Business Summit not because they are leaders of political parties, but as chief executives (chief ministers) of their states," Trinamool Congress national spokesperson Derek O'Brien told PTI.

The invite by Banerjee comes just days after she attended the swearing-in ceremony of Nitish Kumar in Patna, which was attended by Kejriwal as well.

The TMC leadership had termed Banerjee's attending the ceremony as a "mark of protest against authoritarian attitude of the Centre" and effort to "strengthen the federal structure" in the country.

Kumar, also a top JD(U) leader and Banerjee had spoken over phone after the Bihar assembly elections results were announced. Kumar had thanked Banerjee for supporting the grand alliance in Bihar in its fight against BJP.

Banerjee had also congratulated Kumar over Twitter and termed the victory of the Grand Alliance as "the defeat of intolerance".

JD(U) leadership had also extended its support to Banerjee in her fight against BJP and had said that along with AAP and TMC it would fight to strengthen cooperative federalism in the country.